


Drabbles: The Four Last Things

by nebroadwe



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Angst, Canon - Anime, Canon Disabled Character, Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, Exile, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Gen, Gratuitous quotations from Marlowe, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-31
Updated: 2013-01-31
Packaged: 2017-11-27 15:03:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/663370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebroadwe/pseuds/nebroadwe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hohenheim, convinced of his own damnation, still longs for a glimpse of heaven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drabbles: The Four Last Things

**Author's Note:**

> These were, and are, for the LiveJournal user known as hieronymousb.

_**Death** _

Death overtook Hohenheim unexpectedly on the road to knowledge. He remembers the palsy in his legs, the strangling weight in his chest ... how, even as he fell, he forced his eyes to focus on the scarlet wonder he had wrought. _Think of honor and of wealth!_

But not of immortality. That he never sought -- nor, surely, Dante's parasitic athanasia, this illusory preservation. The ground of _la danse macabre_ sounds in his ears with his pulse: _Follow. Follow. Follow._ He waits only for the proper moment to change partners ( _Earth, gape!_ ) and tread the measure ordained for wits and fools alike.

≈

_**Judgment** _

_"Why did you leave us?"_

Hohenheim would rather face his Maker all unshriven in his sin than this fair, tormented creature he has made. The night shudders softly around them, too near the burning city where destruction wails newborn. Strange bar for an overdue accounting, but Hohenheim cannot stop his ears against his son's questions, cannot deny the self he sees in Edward's eyes: fool, coward, sophist ... unloved, but still, helplessly, loving. _Look not so fierce on me!_

He reaches for his shirt cuff, praying the testimony of his body earn him the mercy for which he dares not sue.

≈

_**Hell** _

Convalescent, Edward rages against the exile Hohenheim coaxes him to accept. "All you've _ever_ done is run from trouble!" he shouts. "Go to hell!"

Tired of arguing, Hohenheim smiles with unfelt sweetness. "'Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it -- '"

Edward throws up his hand and retreats with a snarl to his books. Later, nodding in his wheelchair, he murmurs, then calls his lost brother's name, waking himself. Hohenheim pities his uncertainty, his ignorance: a most perfect damnation for a man of science. Yet, eavesdropping on his son's tears, he finds he'd gladly trade for it his own.

≈

_**Heaven** _

_Munich, 1922_

Hohenheim sits in his corner, ostensibly reading. The boys have forgotten him, heads together over a physics exercise by the window, its sash raised to admit the cool September air. Suddenly Alfons leans back and laughs; Edward grunts, but cannot maintain his gravity: he shakes his head to hide a smile. Alfons returns to work, still venting chuckles, and earns an admonitory poke from Ed's pencil.

Hohenheim turns a page. He can smell the _Sauerbraten_ simmering, hear quick steps setting the table for dinner. _Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven ... for I shall never be closer to paradise._

**Author's Note:**

> The "four last things" -- death, judgment, hell, and heaven -- are a popular summation of Roman Catholic eschatology since the Middle Ages and a frequent trope in meditation, spiritual writing (Thomas More penned a treatise on the four last things for his daughter Margaret), preaching (James Joyce records one example in _A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man_ ) and art (unsurprisingly, Hieronymous Bosch produced a notable painting on the subject).
> 
> In "Death," _la danse macabre_ , the dance of death, is a late medieval image (likely inspired by the Black Death) in which the Grim Reaper leads people of every social rank in a conga line to the grave; its purpose is to remind the viewer of the universality of death and the futility of pursuing earthly gain. "Ground," in this context, is a musical term for a repeated phrase that underpins a contrapuntal or polyphonic work. The "bar" of "Judgment" is not an impediment or a place to get a beer, but a court of law -- the same metaphor that gives us "bar exam" and "bar association." Hohenheim's quotation in "Hell" is a line from Christopher Marlowe's _Doctor Faustus_ (act 1, scene 3); readers familiar with the play will notice other phrases from it silently incorporated into these drabbles.


End file.
